Greenway Capitola raised $31,000 and opponents raised $14,000, making this campaign the most expensive in Capitola in recent memory, according to City Manager Jamie Goldstein.

Goldstein said the city settled the claim for attorney’s fees for $65,000 in the lawsuit to keep Measure L off the ballot.

The FPPC notified Greenway Capitola of the inquiry on Election Day.

The inquiry is in response to an Oct. 29 complaint by Linda Wilshusen, assistant treasurer of Capitola First-No on L, a committee opposing Measure L, which sought to preserve the aging trestle in Capitola Village for use as a trail and prevent city investment in detouring people onto city streets or sidewalks.

Mike Rotkin, a member of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, issued a statement saying the potential violations include Greenway Capitola not disclosing legal and canvasser expenditures as the state requires, misleading voters and the public by not fully disclosing the role of Santa Cruz County Greenway in Capitola’s Measure L campaign and filing as a general purpose committee instead of a ballot measure committee.

“We had many reports from Capitola residents that they were being visited at their doors by paid precinct workers from Yes on L, far too many for one person to be doing it all,” Rotkin said. “These included UCSC students who reported that they had been recruited to do such paid precinct work.”

Dennis Norton, a four-time Capitola mayor opposing Measure L, agreed “there were many” paid precinct walkers, and he didn’t see those payments in the campaign reports.

Wilshusen complained that “the volume of campaign signs, mailers and other materials is seemingly beyond the state contribution total listed in the 460s.” Form 450 is used to report campaign fundraising and spending.

Greenway Capitola raised $23,000 as of the Oct. 20 reporting deadline, a figure that grew after three donations totaling $8,000 came in after the deadline. Form 497 is due 24 hours within receiving a contribution of $1,000 or more, but these three donations were reported Nov. 5, the day before the election.

Santa Cruz County Greenway gave $4,500 on Oct. 22.

Michael Hollister of Aptos, a vice president at Driscoll’s, gave $1,000 on Oct. 22.

Kathleen Ballard of Santa Cruz gave $2,500 on Oct. 26.

Santa Cruz County Greenway, which is based in Santa Cruz, donated a total of $14,000 to Greenway Capitola for the Measure L campaign, according to a major donor statement filed Nov 13, after the election. by Manu Koenig, executive director of Santa Cruz County Greenway.

Manu Koenig

On Oct. 26, after reviewing Form 460 campaign statements, City Clerk Linda Fridy emailed Greenway Capitola to recommend listing those legal fees as “unpaid bills” and filing an amendment to indicate a change to a “ballot measure committee.”

Koenig, the new executive director of Santa Cruz County Greenway, responded to the Sentinel’s request for comment, saying Tom Evans of Capitola, who chaired the Yes on L campaign, was traveling on business and unavailable.

“I’m not going to get into the specifics,” Koenig said. “All the data is available publicly on the city of Capitola website.”

He said Santa Cruz County Greenway did not pay people to collect signatures.

“That’s all reported in the Capitola Greenway filings,” he said.

Asked about the legal fees, Koenig said the city paid those fees directly to Greenway Capitola’s attorneys.

“The law is clear that legal fees incurred in connection with this type of lawsuit are not campaign reportable,” he added, citing a 1977 case involving the city of Lake Forest which he said confirmed by the FPPC in 2013.

Koenig also provided a statement from the Yes on L campaign saying, “It is unfortunate that the No on L Campaign, which lost a fair election in Capitola, cannot graciously accept the will of the voters…The Yes on L campaign is aware of its campaign reporting obligations and has disclosed, and will continue to disclose, all receipts and expenditures as required by law.”

The statement continued, “We will not be responding further to false statements made via press release by the defeated No on L campaign or its surrogates. The election is over, and the people of Capitola have spoken: the majority of Capitolans want pedestrians and bikes on the Capitola trestle.”